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Speaking about the game giant’s general plans for selling us shooty/sporty games in the distant future, an Electronic Arts man said the next generation of home consoles “will most likely not be backwards compatible.”
In a Q&A session with investors, EA’s chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen said: “An important thing to remember is that next-gen consoles will most likely not be backwards compatible… And if you [play] multiplayer on a game, you’ll most likely not be able to play with someone on a different generation.”
Given the big changes in internal hardware providers and configuration we’re seeing pop up in leaks regarding Sony and Microsoft’s plans for its next machines, that’s not entirely surprising. And as we excitedly guessed when Sony bought streaming service Gaiki, we wouldn’t be shocked if back-compat features were done via some sort of streaming solution instead of running your old discs on the new machines. And if this shaves £50 off the RRP of PS4 and Xbox 720, it has to be a good decision.
Jorgensen also dropped some big hints about console and tablet integration, that seem to confirm one of the big players may offer a tablet version of its next home machine, saying: “You’re going to see people playing on glass at the same time they’re playing on the console. And there’s going to be some exciting innovations around that.” [Gamasutra via Kotaku]
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He said ‘most likely’, sounds like he’s just guessing. Kind of non-news, since he won’t be in the know about that sort of stuff.
Sony and mostly likely Microsoft as well will mostly likely continue to support the current generation and mostly likely offer a muchj cheaper license fee to mostly likely support smaller developer.
the internals and the architectural differences in the CPU make it a sure fire thing that they wont be backwards compatible, just look at the ps3 when it was compatible with PS2 games, they basically had to shove all the ps2 hardware in there! thats not a viable solution for the next gen consoles.
Backwards compatibility is a relatively new thing in the console market anyway. Not sure why so much fuss is made over it. More trouble than it’s worth. I’d rather they made the new kit cheaper then I could forgo selling my old stuff because of the difference.
“Next-Gen Home Consoles Ditching Backwards Compatibility, Says EA Man”
THAT’S NOT WHAT HE’S SAYING AT ALL.
He’s saying that EA Sports games for new consoles won’t support cross-platform play with the equivalent title for the old consoles – which is something few people would have been expecting anyway.
Umm that’s exactly what he said… Did you even read the article?
“In a Q&A session with investors, EA’s chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen said: “An important thing to remember is that next-gen consoles will most likely not be backwards compatible”"
I enter my 30s tomorrow. My gaming days are largely over. I may play Football Manager on the laptop now and then but that is it. I shall keep my PS3 as a DVD player and sell or give away my games.
Dude, gaming starts at 30..
Sell the game to buy a pipe, slippers and a smoking jacket?
I’m turning 28 shortly and I feel the same. Except it is quite impossible to give away your entire Steam Library.
im turning 39 next month and i play more games now than i ever did as a kid.
So not only are they blocking the ability to play used games on the console (http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/02/looks-like-the-next-gen-xbox-will-block-used-games-too/), you cannot even play previously bought games on the next gen even though you are the first and legit owner of that game. Sounds like consumers are getting screwed over double. This has completely put me of the gaming console market (from Microsoft and Sony at least). The OUYA is something different that I would seriously consider though.